Microsoft internal emails reveal plans to stream PC games through Xbox Cloud Gaming

According to internal emails revealed during the FTC v. Microsoft case, Microsoft has been planning to stream PC games through Xbox Cloud Gaming. 

As The Verge reports, the internal emails show that the company has been planning on expanding its Xbox Cloud Gaming service by adding PC games, a decision that was originally in response to Google Stadia’s existence. 

Xbox’s service currently allows you to play games on Xbox Game Pass through multiple devices – like Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and mobile and tablet devices from Apple and Android – but is currently limited to Xbox titles only.

The internal emails show conversations about Stadia from July 2021 between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Xbox chief Phil Spencer, head of Cloud Gaming Kareem Choudhry, and head of Xbox creator experience Sarah Bond. 

“Seems like they will have a leg up because their stuff is more generic Linux VMs + Network… But I am assuming we will do the same for Game Pass PC – right?” asked Nadella. 

Spencer responded and confirmed that Microsoft is working on a way to stream native PC games through the cloud, and said: “Google has the ability to reuse their Linux cloud hardware and yes as we stream PC native games from an Azure GPU SKU we would have more re-use scenarios to recoup costs.”

“Phil is correct. Sarah [Bond] and I in partnership with Jason’s [Zander] team are driving a suitable Azure SKU… as part of a series that will serve the customer demand we see externally for IAAS and to run our xCloud PC streaming stack,” Choudhry added.

The move seems to have been as a way to compete with Stadia – which has now shut down – as Spencer wrote: “Google is in the process of just trying to turn Stadia into a Google Cloud SKU and do away with their first party consumer service.”

The Xbox boss also explained that although Google is a “massive and aggressive competitor” he was “surprised by their lack of progress with Stadia”, before adding that Microsoft’s number one competitor to Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently Nvidia’s GeForce Now. 

“But we keep our eye on both Google and Amazon with Luna (also struggling),” Spencer said.

Even though the internal emails show that Microsoft was working on implementing native PC games for its cloud service in July 2021, there has been no official word on the matter from the company. 

More details have been revealed from the FTC v. Microsoft case, including new documents that state that The Elder Scrolls 6 is expected to be released sometime during or after 2026.

If you’re looking for the next thing to play, here’s our list of the best Xbox Series X games, as well as our best Xbox Game Pass titles on offer.